The strong decline of freshwater fish species in Europe implies that further ex-situ conservation plans should be implemented in the near future. The present study reflects our experience with the Pyrenean sculpin (Cottus hispaniolensis Bacescu-Mester, 1964)—a small cottid endemic to the Hispano-French Garona River basin. In recent years, the Spanish Pyrenean sculpin population has reached a limit situation. Because of that, the non-profit association ADEFFA—with support from the public administration—started the first captive breeding program for this species in 2006. Fourteen years later, this study presents the results and evaluates the different steps of the program, with the aim of discussing and improving the ex-situ conservation plans for this and other cold freshwater species. There is a description and a comparison between six consecutive phases during the captive breeding process: nesting behaviour, courtship, egg fixation, parental care (incubation), hatching and survival during juvenile development. The purposes of this project are to: (1) identify the most determining phases for a successful captive breeding; (2) identify the factors that had a major influence to the success of the critical phases; and (3) increase the number of the offspring. This study is based on thirty-three wild individuals collected from Garona River (Val d’Aran, Spanish Pyrenees). During the program, twelve couples spawned in captive conditions, with around 2300 eggs laid. Eight couples bred successfully, with 751 hatched individuals and 608 juveniles reared. The analysis of each step of the captive breeding does not reveal significant differences between phases, so it can be concluded that they are all critical at the same level. In the literature, similar study-cases of captive breeding programs identify incubation and survival phases as the most critical. Consequently, the management made for this project has probably allowed to overcome in part the main impediments described in other similar programs.

中文翻译：

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第一个濒危比利牛斯杜鹃（Cottus hispaniolensis Bacescu-Master，1964）圈养繁殖计划

欧洲淡水鱼种类的急剧减少意味着在不久的将来应实施进一步的异地保护计划。本研究反映了我们对比利牛斯山杜鹃（Cottus hispaniolensis Bacescu-Mester，1964 年）的经验——一种西班牙-法国加罗纳河流域特有的小型杜鹃。近年来，西班牙比利牛斯山杜鹃种群已达到极限状态。因此，在公共行政部门的支持下，非营利协会 ADEFFA 在 2006 年启动了该物种的第一个圈养繁殖计划。 十四年后，这项研究展示了结果并评估了该计划的不同步骤，旨在讨论和改进该物种和其他冷淡水物种的异地保护计划。在圈养繁殖过程中的六个连续阶段之间进行了描述和比较：筑巢行为、求偶、卵固定、父母照顾（孵化）、孵化和幼鱼发育期间的存活。该项目的目的是： (1) 确定成功的圈养繁殖的最关键阶段；(2) 确定对关键阶段的成功有重大影响的因素；(3) 增加后代数量。本研究基于从加罗纳河（Val d'Aran，西班牙比利牛斯）收集的 33 只野生个体。在该计划期间，十二对夫妇在圈养条件下产卵，产下约 2300 个卵。8对配对成功，孵化出751只个体，饲养608只幼体。对圈养繁殖每一步的分析并没有发现阶段之间的显着差异，因此可以得出结论，它们在同一水平上都是至关重要的。在文献中，圈养繁殖计划的类似研究案例将孵化和生存阶段确定为最关键的阶段。因此，为该项目所做的管理可能已部分克服了其他类似项目中描述的主要障碍。